Cambridge video games firm Ninja Theory is celebrating after collecting five titles at the industry BAFTAs.

The Milton Road firm picked up the prizes for its latest game, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, winning in the audio achievement, artistic achievement, best British game and game beyond entertainment categories. The best performer prize went to Melina Juergens, who plays the title character, Celtic warrior Senua.

Read More

The innovative game uses a fantasy setting to tackle the issue of psychosis, and Ninja Theory spent three years working with the Cambridge and Peterborough NHS foundation trust (CPFT) and its Recovery College East to gain an understanding of the condition.

Professor Paul Fletcher, academic lead for CPFT’s adult and specialist directorate, worked closely with the company, and congratulated it on the awards.

He said: "They have done something risky but important, and potentially valuable in representing experiences that most people find deeply alien. The fact that they are doing so in a first-person subjective viewpoint in a game setting, which demands that the player fully engages with the experience rather than simply passively observing it, makes it all the more powerful and has already got people on the internet and in the media talking in an engaged, thoughtful and respectful way about the nature of these experiences and what it must feel like to have them.

Read More

"Critically, for me, the heroine, Senua, is not a weak or broken figure. She is frightened and bewildered but she is also courageous, dignified and determined and I feel that these attributes are there because of what the Ninja Theory team experienced in their extensive interactions and discussions with the people at CPFT and Recovery College.''

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is out now on PC and PS4, as well as a newly released Xbox One version.